Freedom and Self Education: So Easy an Adult Can Do It!

I have found that I learn best when I have the freedom to learn something I’m excited about.  We have freedom of education, I can choose to learn about what I want.  I don’t have to choose a class or career path that someone else picks for me or that someone else thinks I would be proficient in.  I’m free to choose what I study and learn and that is how I learn best.  As an example, I met some people who were demonstrating spinning on spinning wheels.  I became fascinated with it!  I wanted to know how one worked (the math and mechanics of it).  I wanted to know how long spinning wheels have been in use and where they have been used in the world (history and geography).  Then I found out there are different kinds of wheel and I wanted to learn about each of them: their origins, what types of fibers they spin best, and who spun on them.  Once excited…

• I read books about wheels.
• I read novels with spinning wheels in them.
• I searched websites for building kits for spinning wheels.
• I searched the newspaper and websites for used and new spinning wheels.
• I learned about fiber, but that is a whole other blog J.
• I searched websites and attended guild meetings in my area to learn how to use a spinning wheel from women who had mastered the skill.
• I made my own drop spindle with which to spin.
• I borrowed a wheel and began spinning demonstrations to show others how it’s done.
• I loved every minute of it!
• I couldn’t get enough and my passion became a service to others.

Kids Self Educate All The Time – If We Let Them

Kids have such a love of learning when they’re young.  A baby wants to look at everything, touch it, put it in their mouth, all because they’re learning about it.  Then they start to mimic every sound they hear.  They use all their senses to learn about the world around them.  Then at about 3 years of age, they take a leap in their learning with their constant question of “why?”  We’re not sitting them at desks, telling them everything they should know.  We’re allowing them to explore and experience and come up with their own questions.  A little more exploration and more experience in the right environment can help them answer their own questions.  We are a huge influence on our children and when they see that we are daily practicing self education, they will naturally want to continue to self educate themselves.

A Mentor is Someone That Can Lead Others in Their Learning

You can be a mentor to your child.  You are the most qualified to do that because you know your child better than anyone else!  And guess what, you can have mentors to help you in your education, too.  You probably already have some mentors in your life:

•  a parent that you learn everyday skills from
•  a neighbor teaching you to garden
• someone at work who has been doing the same job as you for decades
• a trusted friend who has older children and answers about your parenting questions.

Be sure to learn all you can from your mentors and thank them for their guidance.  Pay it forward to others who look to you for guidance, too.  You are their mentor.  As your child’s mentor, let them know you are learning every day and that you are thankful for the freedom that you can.

The Best Way to Help Your Child Be a Continual Learner is To Be One Yourself!

The best way to help your children love to learn, to be life long learners , and to self educate is to do it yourself.  Mentors have gone the path before you, even just one step ahead.  Be that mentor for your child and give them the gift to learn in freedom and to self educate.

Take the Challenge

Choose this week to take one hour each day to use solely for your education.  Write down when you will take this hour and promise yourself to use it.  If you have been meaning to get to a book, read it during that hour.  If you don't have a list of things to read, start with the Declaration of Independence.  That will only take 10 minutes, so grab a dictionary, a notebook and pencil, too.  Read through the Declaration, then right down any words you don't know.  Look them up in the dictionary and write the definitions that apply on your paper.  Once you have an understanding of what is being said, then re-write the Declaration in your own words.